Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in rare form

Sen. Ted Cruz gave a nod to the “wacko birds in the house.” Sen. Mike Lee, to cheers, said, “We’re not accustomed to that kind of welcome in Washington.” And Sen. Rand Paul could barely get a word in edgewise before “Stand with Rand” cheers drowned out everything else.

Paul, Cruz and Lee — three of the senate’s most vocal champions of a libertarian-leaning approach — appeared onstage together Wednesday night at a conference sponsored by Young Americans for Liberty, a Ron Paul-linked organization. There, to resounding cheers and catcalls, they made no secret of their issues with their GOP colleagues in the Senate as they made overtures to the youthful audience.

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Reality check: Shutdown threats

“The growth potential isn’t in what they’re talking about,” Paul (R-Ky.) said of the “old guard” of the GOP. “They’re presiding over a dying party. They’re presiding over an all-white, dying, everybody-in-a-tie…”

Paul, a possible 2016 contender, added that the GOP needs people from diverse racial backgrounds, “people with ponytails, people with tattoos,” to lead the party forward.

In a wide-ranging panel discussion at a hotel in Arlington, Va. that touched on issues including foreign aid (which received boos), the debt, Social Security and national security, the three senators were often as critical of their own party as they were of the Obama administration.

“Republicans claim they care … about the rule of law,” Paul said, turning to a discussion about whether to keep providing military aid to Egypt, even though in his view a coup has occurred — a move Paul opposes. “But like, the law is pretty explicit.”

He clashed with several of his Republican colleagues over that issue earlier on Wednesday.

In discussing privacy, Paul said that “one Republican, I won’t name names … he’s from south of North Carolina … said he didn’t care if we censor all mail,” he said, generating shouts of, “Fire Lindsey Graham!”

“Some people say if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” Paul said. “That’s quite a step below innocent until proven guilty.”

Cruz (R-Texas) also had tough words for his party, saying the national debt is a result of “bipartisan” activity.

“It is Democrats who have driven a significant part of the spending, but an awful lot of Republicans played [a major] part in doing it,” he said.

He also urged the audience to join him and several colleagues in their current major initiative: Defunding Obamacare at all costs.

“I’m going to be perfectly candid,” Cruz said. “We can’t win this fight, Mike Lee can’t win, I can’t win, Rand can’t win this fight, no Washington politician can win this fight. The only people who can win this fight are you.”

Speaking to about 300 libertarian-leaning college students, the three politicians described their path to conservative politics. Lee (R-Utah) said he grew up talking politics at the dinner table — he was “politically active by 4th grade” — and he said he’s always been bothered by talk of “expanding the role of federal government.” Cruz offered his story about engaging in politics early on and how his father, a Cuban immigrant, taught him to value liberty. Paul took a lighter approach.

In college, he joked, he was “in the library every night, home in bed by nine, I never drank any beer or smoked …”

He also regaled the crowd with a story about the time he was detained by the the Transportation Security Administration over an “anomaly” in the body-scanning machine. The crowd reacted with raucous laughter and applause as Paul quipped about the incident, noting that he was extremely polite even in the face of “the meanest, nastiest, school marm-looking woman, this far from my nose.”

As the Kentucky senator prepared to deliver closing remarks, his microphone faded for a moment.

“Damn the NSA,” he said to applause.

The loudest cheers from the audience came toward the end of the evening.